Force’s football unit is ready for kick-off
16 August 2024
The new football season is here and fans of the six clubs in the West Midlands are full of optimism for the campaign – and there’s also anticipation in the Force’s football unit.
Our English Football League teams – Birmingham City, Coventry City, West Bromwich Albion and Walsall – started their season last weekend.
This weekend it’s the turn of Premier League Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers to kick-off their campaigns.
Football Unit Inspector Rich Cox said: “It’s great to have football back and we’re really looking forward to supporting our teams.
“There’s always a lot of excitement at the start of the season, and we hope that’s channelled in the right way by supporters throughout the season.”
Rich’s team is made up of six dedicated football officers (DFOs), one assigned to each club, three investigators and a sergeant to oversee all aspects – and it’s been a busy summer for them.
Investigators
During the close-season, the investigators have been clearing their workload from last season.
In addition, the unit has been policing high-profile cricket matches at Edgbaston, such as England’s Test match with West Indies.
Three of the team spent six weeks in Germany for the European Championship, working with the authorities there as England spotters to identify issues and prevent problems.
And alongside all that, the team has also been preparing for the start of this season.
“Over the summer, I plan for the season ahead,” Rich explained. “Which Bronze Commanders are we going to put with each club?
“What’s our costings going to be for the season? What are the categories for the fixtures and the resourcing around those?
Planning
“If a broadcaster wants a fixture moved that comes to me to have conversations with our planning department.
“At times we don’t want games to move kick-off times for a number of reasons and sometimes we do want them to move.
“And I refresh the main public order briefing, which gets played before every home fixture, which is a chance for us to put out clear messaging about the expectations and what we ask for at these events.”
Rich, a Federation member, said that issues facing football are often those facing wider society.
“In terms of crimes, it’s public order, assaults against staff, class A drugs, and hate crime, which is significant at football,” he said.
“Misogyny is a real issue and one we’re looking at increasingly.
“That can be female officers being touched, members of staff at football clubs being abused or touched, and you can get general chanting from football fans that historically wasn’t challenged but more recently is being challenged and we’re starting to arrest people, which has had a very good effect.
“And use of Class A drugs is something that runs through it all.”
Villa Park
Rich’s career in football policing began around 2002 when he became a supervisor in Aston and policed a lot of the games at Villa Park.
He became an inspector and a Bronze Commander in 2011 and maintained his skills even when he was in the Public Protection Unit (PPU) for five years.
He came out of PPU in 2017, moved to the Operational Support Unit (OSU) and having spent four years there his current role came up at the end of 2021.
“It just happened to be timing,” he said. “I applied and got the job.
“It’s great. I enjoy going to football and I like investigating crime.
“If I didn’t investigate crime I’d feel there was a part of me missing, and there’s also managing the football and Bronze Commanding, which means as an inspector I spend a fair bit of my time on the ground operational, which is massively important to me.
“It’s a great job for me in that sense, because I still like being on the streets and involved.”
The Force has very good relationships with the six West Midlands clubs, Rich said.
“Each of our clubs are individual,” he said. “They have their own safety teams and their own unique stadiums, and geographies, and asks of ourselves.
“Because of that, the staffing profiles we put to each category of match is different. For example a medium risk fixture for Aston Villa and a medium risk fixture for Coventry City might be very different in terms of the staffing profile.”
Chanting
Away from domestic football, there has been an international flavour to the summer for three of the football unit’s officers.
Sergeant Lizzie Lewandowski, PC Stu Spencer, and PC David Hulson spent six weeks as England spotters at the Euros in Germany.
Rich explained: “If you are an England spotter and deploy abroad, you don’t have any powers, but you are acting as the knowledge base for the local police.
“The classic example is England fans are in a square and are chanting, which the local authorities find offensive.
“How it should work is the local authorities speak to the England spotters and say can you ask them to stop because it’s causing an offence.
“The spotter goes over, has that conversation, the chant stops, and the situation is resolved.”
And on the European front, it promises to be a huge season for Aston Villa, who are back in Europe’s premier club competition for the first time since the 1982-83 season.
Rich acknowledged the unique circumstances around last season’s game against Legia Warsaw, which saw violent disorder outside the stadium, and said he was confident the Champions League games will be ‘business as usual’ for the club and its fans.
“Having worked all the European games last season, the Legia one was unique in terms of the approach taken by the club and its fanbase, and there was trouble, despite the excellent efforts of Aston Villa, the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) and the police,” he said.
“Aston Villa this year want to see European football as business as usual, and we agree.
“Last year it was new for the fans and the club, but now they’re in the Champions League with more established football clubs, with established fanbases that travel without causing too many problems. I’m hoping it will be business as usual.”
